Buried deep within the hull of the Renown, the Bridge and Combat Information Center (CIC) is where the Captain of the ship coordinates the day to day operations of the ship as well as works with the crew during combat situations. Surrounded by an immersive holographic interface that accurately recreates the space surrounding the ship, the platform on which the bridge sits seems to hang in the depths of space, providing skippers an immersive and interactive view of the battlefield while retaining the safety and security provided by being buried behind layers of armor and shields.

I had a similar idea myself for a starship bridge - holographic display surrounding a command "platform" on which the control stations are located. As such I have to rate this design quite highly () but you've used your background to lend it an air of well-thought-out authenticity and plausibility that lifts it above other similar designs.

This is an interesting layout. I do wonder how it would look if you was it in real life. I can imagine it being a very impressive room if you walked into it. How does this CIC layout compare to the ones on vessels of different classes? For instance, would an Admiral-Class CIC look the same or have additional stations for the monitoring of the ship's heavy missile launchers?

I like it a lot, but the paths of information do leave a few questions. I realize that information would be mostly done by 'uplink', but perhaps allowing for redundancy would be a smart move. Just as an example, putting the three sensor stations together instead of separating one from the group. Symmetry isn't always needed after all.

Every station was considered for a specific reason. The sensor Analyst was placed away from long range and short range sensor officers because sensor analysts job relates more directly with the work that the intelligence officer's work entails. That is to say that the two officers do most of their work together, with the long range and short range sensor officers doing little but feeding information to the analyst. The analyst is shown passing information back to the long range sensor officer but that is just a general hierarchy. The Sensor analyst, like the intel officer, can work directly with the XO to pass on results.

The separation of some of the other stations, like the port and starboard tactical officers is because unlike a bridge that just uses screens, spatial relation is important to the functions of the crews. The port and starboard fire control officers, depending on who the ship is engaging, can put 'eyes' on their targets and evaluate the battle space directly in front of them. In addition, the layout I put together puts all the combat critical officers directly around the skipper, giving him lines of communication to all the critical persons. That was my logic behind it and we all have different logic driving how we would do it.

Yeah, but I also modified the trek concepts. I wanted to put combat critical officers around the captain but not every officer. That way the information during combat is distilled down and you get what you need regarding the actual battle information.

That is a very futuristic cic design, especially compared to the crammed cic of a modern warship. I like the reporting lines. When I look at a lot of science fiction shows, the captain seems to do almost everything himself, which is unrealistic.

The schematic mentions an AI. Do the humans on the cic merely supervise? Since a strong AI should be able to do every thing faster/better except possibly creative decisions.

If you are planning to write fiction, the interaction between crew and AI, on and off duty, would certainly be interesting especially if it has personality.

The humans in the CIC do alot of the target selection, target analysis, evaluation, and planning. The A.I. handles more of the 'grunt' work (hence the lack of enlisted personnel in the bridge), passing on information to fire control officers, managing lower priority items, and leaving the humans the task of coordinating. The A.I. also gives the lighting fast reflexes needed in the seconds that ships have to engage each other during battle when passing each other. In summary, humans play a huge role in the actual coordination of the vessel, but they still rely heavily on the A.I. for analysis, information management, and low-priority system monitoring - giving the trained and experienced officers the capability to focus on the major elements of the battle.

Nice design. Not sure if I would split the tac officers that way - imagine shouting tactical updates across your captain. Personally, I would put the Comm / Intel officers on one side of the bridge and tac on the other, then have the chief tac and chief comm officers at position 17 and 18. Just my two cents, though.

Well cross communcation on the bridge is actually handled by uplink and is pretty voice-less. You feed information into the main stations and can even call up face to face communcation across the bridge allowing for quick and easy discussion, this also allows you to focus all the critical personal in an circle around the skipper and XO while retaining some separation.

::shrugs:: But you have to realize that within a department, there are very distinct jobs and distinct focuses in the battle space. Even though a department looks "split up", the jobs important to a ship getting through the fast paced, intense situation of actual battle are all around the skipper while the officers whose jobs are to analyze and evaluate and thus don't need that precious space around the skipper and can afford to communicate via the inter-bridge communication system are positioned further away.

Well the ease-of-access to information is provided through the chain of command and the person who needs the quickest access to it is the skipper. That is why the critical people who need the information are around him. Furthermore, if you think about the hierarchy and the pacing of information and when you'll need it and why. You'll realize that the persons who deal with the faster pace information during battles are all positioned up or near the front of the ship and around the skipper. Those who deal with slower paced information and analysis and dont' need that proximity to the skipper are further away, positioned to the rear where they are still on the bridge and can transfer information and interact, but are out of the way when that fast paced tempo team has to take over.

thats one super cool bridge.and the id of having the ships AI his own hologramimage is cool.i belive that the big space ship in the halo game has somthing like that to for its AI,but i`m not sure it was a long time ago that i played it lol.

Yeah, Halo had an avatar for its A.I. and that concept is somewhat adopted form that, but unlike the Halo A.I. who seemed to do all the fighting of the ship, the A.I. in CoM does a bit more managing and monitoring as well as low-priority task handling and general analysis. The humans still play a critical role in actual battle management.

Hey, BTW. Have you heard of Crest of the Stars or Banner of the Stars, by any chance?That franchise has an interesting feel when it comes to ship design, politics, race and physics in a science fiction.

A few of the larger capital ships have this sort of bridge: a large platform suspended in a cavity.

FINALLY we have a sci-fi ship bridge THAT IS NOT OUT IN THE OPEN!Good luck at anyone trying to eliminate the command staff on the first surprise shot now!

On my own warships, I was actually thinking of having a more "traditional" set up of a CIC and a navigation bridge. The bridge is covered by a shield at all times, and the windows are armor-grade transparent metal. Functions are transfered to the CIC when battle is expected. Both are manned at all times when combat is anticipated.The CIC is situated deep within a ship, at the furthest point from the reactor core, hangar bays and the outer hull, directly connected to an armored shelter. The CIC is a circular space with an indentation for battle navigation controls (much like on a modern submarine), with the helmsman issued a holographic visor connected to the exterior sensor suite. The control interfaces would be on the walls, while the central area would have an interactive holographic display showing the battlespace outside the ship. The captain can issue orders using this display, even laying a course for the helmsman, if he so wishes. Real Time Tactics.

I'd imagine that would be a bit more functional than what I remember from the CIC in Ticonderoga.

Fascinating idea I have to say, I have seen people do "holo-bridges" for Star Trek vessels (usually badly designed), but this one looks interesting, am I right in assuming that the back wall still looks "Battleship grey" and then the other 3 sides are the holographic display?

I do prefer the idea of the deep hulled CIC for ships, and this one seems to sort out the limiting factor which is a "lack of visual information" that they have.

Well first off this isn't for a star trek ship, this is for my own universe but you may have meant that and just been referring to a similar analogue. The back has a sort of "panel" that seems to hang in space because the holo panels create a full immersion facade, above, below and all around the bridge.

Ah, sorry, it is a little hard to read the text on it, but fascinating that you have gone for the 360 ball of holo-viewing, and yes I was saying "someone else had this idea, but in Star Trek" sorry about the confusion.